The Arlington Museum of Art has been a staple of Downtown Arlington’s arts and culture scene for over thirty years.
Museum History
The organization started from humble beginnings in the 1950s as the Arlington Art Association. Things began to pick up steam in 1986 when Mayor Harold Patterson supported the creation of an art museum in Arlington. In 1987, the organization signed a lease at its current location of 201 W. Main Street in the former J.C. Penney department store and held its first exhibit there before renovating the building. In 1988, the Arlington Museum of Art officially opened, with 18 pieces in its permanent collection. By 1990, the exhibition focused on contemporary Texas art, a direction it would maintain until 2008. Then, the organization changed to its current focus of traveling national and international exhibits and ones curated in-house for a few months.
Throughout the last decade or so, the museum has hosted many renowned and popular exhibits. The museum hosted Rembrandt: An Evolution of Etchings in 2012, its first world-renowned exhibit. Later, in 2014, the museum presented Ansel Adams: Masterworks, which had the largest attendance in the museum’s history. Other notable exhibits have featured works by Salvador Dali, Pablo Picasso, and others. More recently, Disney Art from Private Collections and A Knight’s Tale have drawn impressive attendance records. The museum’s Summer 2023 exhibit, Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour Collection, has already set attendance records as well, proving that art museums can successfully blur the lines between traditional art and pop culture.
“Rembrandt: An Evolution of Etchings” from the “Uncrated” exhibit
Amid their impressive momentum, the Arlington Museum of Art announced they plan to move to the city’s Entertainment District in early 2024. I must admit, the news was bittersweet. I liked our cozy downtown museum; many echoed those thoughts on social media when they broke the news. Still, it’s hard to argue with their ambitious plans—their new space will be eight times larger, an increase from 5,500 square feet to 48,000 square feet. The larger space will be able to accommodate many more guests, host higher-profile exhibits and events, and have the ability to blend traditional art with immersive and interactive exhibits. It is beneficial, as the new space will undoubtedly draw more visitors and further the museum’s mission. Although the area is already bursting at the seams, the museum will surely enhance Arlington’s Entertainment District. The Arlington Museum of Art expects their new home to be ready in March 2024.
Arlington Museum of Art – Downtown Arlington
Exhibits
In the summer of 2022, I visited the Arlington Museum of Art for the first time and attended their next few exhibits.
Disney Art from Private Collections
(June 11, 2022 – September 4, 2022)
This fun exhibit showcased Disney-related art, sketches, and other items. I’m not a Disney fan, but I appreciate the animation process, especially in the early days when it was done painstakingly by hand. The sketches displayed had emotion and felt life-like, even without the animation. These were original sketches, not copies, and certainly rare. Each sketch was handsomely framed and matted, and there were also staging and props throughout the museum to help set the scene. Films included Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Alice in Wonderland, The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, and many more. We enjoyed it, and others did, too. It was one of the most popular exhibits in the museum’s history.
A Knight’s Tale
(October 22, 2022 – February 12, 2023)
“A Knight’s Tale” was a fantastic exhibit featuring over 100 rare objects loaned from the Museo Stibbert in Florence, Italy. The exhibit included full suits of armor, weaponry, helmets, shields, and more. My favorite was the mounted equestrian figures, which were impressive to see and helped bring the exhibit to life. Seeing the artifacts up close was exciting, as one appreciates these objects’ craftsmanship, exquisite details, and breathtaking beauty. Some of the pieces were from the Middle Ages and Renaissance periods. This impressive exhibit could have easily been in a much larger city, not Downtown Arlington.
Uncrated: Reimagining the Arlington Museum of Art, 1950-2025
(April 1, 2023 – May 14, 2023)
The Arlington Museum of Art’s website explained that the exhibit featured “never-before-seen seen art, artifacts, and historical images from the archives of the Arlington Museum of Art.” I enjoyed this one, although it was a smaller exhibit and probably less popular than some of their recent ones. I liked the timeline of notable events and photographs—many of which were behind-the-scenes photos from installations, exhibits, and events. I also liked the blueprints from the building renovation and the other plans and drawings. The original Arlington Museum of Art signage, which consisted of individual letters mounted to the building, was also displayed. They were removed in the early 2000s for the construction of the rooftop gallery and have been kept in storage ever since. Those were pieces of art themselves. Apparently, the museum also hosted a haunted house around that time, as they had some photos displayed of the event. The exhibit was more of a documentary than a feature film, which I liked.
Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour Collection
(June 3, 2023 – September 24, 2023)
The Arlington Museum of Art announced this exhibit around the Taylor Swift concert weekend in Arlington earlier this year. The exhibit gave the museum its highest opening-day attendance ever, and the next day, June 4, the museum broke its record for single-day attendance. The exhibit represented four different Taylor Swift “eras” to coincide with Swift’s current tour, known as The Eras Tour. Each era of the exhibit included costumes, photographs, and memorabilia. The exhibit included a detailed timeline of her career, and QR Codes throughout had music, videos, and additional content. Many attendees wore Taylor Swift concert T-shirts, outfits inspired by her music videos, or even dressed up in something special for the event. We went during the second weekend of the exhibit, and it was crowded. Although not a fan of her music, I enjoyed the exhibit and thought the museum did a fine job putting it together.
The exhibit, dubbed “The Girls of Summer,” also included three smaller exhibits:
- “Girl in a Country Song: Women of Country Music” — featuring rarely-seen photographs of Loretta Lynn, Dolly Parton, Tanya Tucker, and others.
- “Hometown Harmonies” — featuring personal memorabilia and costumes from local singer-songwriters Maren Morris and Kirstin Maldonado, who started their careers in Arlington.
- “Toni Martin: Butterfly Kisses” — featuring mixed-media pieces from Dallas-based artist Toni Martin and her Butterfly Kisses series.
José Guadalupe Posada: Legendary Printmaker of Mexico
(October 21, 2023 – January 7, 2024)
“José Guadalupe Posada: Legendary Printmaker of Mexico” was the final exhibit for Arlington Museum of Art’s downtown location. I saw the exhibit on its closing day and was one of the last few patrons in the museum. José Guadalupe Posada (1852–1913) was an artist, illustrator, and printmaker from Mexico whose prolific work was often satirical and social. The exhibit mainly focused on his calaveras—skulls or skeletons—which are prevalent in Mexican lore, especially around El Día de los Muertos (The Day of the Dead.) Displayed throughout the museum were broadsheets, pamphlets, books, engravings, and other works from, and inspired by, Posada. The calaveras are certainly iconic, almost even mythical, and delve into the soul of Mexico’s culture. Posada helped express the angst and awakening of a transitioning country; his work felt meaningful and compelling. The prints were highly detailed, and the exhibit was likely popular around Halloween and El Día de los Muertos.
End of an era
The Arlington Museum of Art has begun transitioning to their new location, which will be in the heart of our Entertainment District. Their first exhibit, “Pompeii: The Immortal City,” will open on March 30, 2024. It promises to be an immersive and multimedia experience, putting visitors back at the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79. I imagine it will be popular and very well done, showcasing their new space and its capabilities, which will be nearly eight times larger than their one downtown and can accommodate traditional, immersive, and interactive exhibits.
Photo Credit: Arlington Museum of Art
It will be interesting to see what happens to their former building. Downtown needs a significant tenant to occupy the building and help keep the revitalization moving forward. Some sources say a church has acquired the property, but we’ll see. That’s different from how I saw the revitalization efforts going, yet it’s better than the space staying empty.
As the Arlington Museum of Art moves about 3 miles away to its new home, it’s the end of an era. While the two areas aren’t mutually exclusive, downtown seems more for the locals and the Entertainment District more for the tourists. Yet, over the last 18 months, I visited the museum five times and saw five completely different exhibits. Although bittersweet, it’s an exciting time for arts and culture in Arlington, and their move will undoubtedly draw in much larger crowds. Our intimate downtown museum is no more, yet it’s evolving into something bigger and better for the greater good.
Blog post and photos by Jason S. Sullivan, 06-12-23 | updated 01-26-24
Jason S. Sullivan 